A quilt is usually sewn from three layers, a pre-sewn and pieced top fabric, a fabric backing bottom layer, and batting in the middle of the two fabric layers. Machine quilting is traditionally accomplished using one of two methods. For the first method, a user uses a sewing machine on a table and pushes the entire quilt around to quilt the three layers, which is cumbersome and difficult to manipulate.
For the second method, a user uses a quilting frame with a sewing or quilting machine mounted on it. For this method, the quilting frame typically consists of a system of four or five separate rails to manage the three layers of fabric. At the front of the frame there are three rails. Each rail has one of the three quilt layers of fabric rolled onto it. The three rails feed the three layers of fabric sandwiched together to the take up rail, located toward the back of the frame. On some frames the fabric layers first pass under an idler rail and then up to the take up rail. The idler rail serves to position the fabric just above the bed or bottom of the throat of the sewing machine so the fabric does not drag on the bed of the machine as the machine is moved around on the quilt to create the quilted patterns on the fabric. When no idler rail is present, the take up rail must be repositioned higher in relation to the bed of the machine to prevent the fabric from dragging on the bed of the machine as the quilted fabric is gradually rolled up on the take up rail, gradually growing in diameter. The present invention requires the use of an idler rail.
The back half of the frame consists of a framework that holds the sewing machine on a wheeled plate (or the sewing machine has wheels mounted directly to it and therefore serves as the top plate itself) that rolls in an X axis which sits on a second wheeled plate that rolls on the framework in a Y axis. The sewing machine or the top plate will have a set of handles that gives the user the ability to move the sewing machine smoothly across the quilt fabric layers to stitch them together. The take up rail passes through the throat of the sewing machine and is used to roll up the fabric layers once they have been quilted together with the sewing machine.
The size of the patterns that a user can sew on the quilt at one time is limited by the length of the throat of the sewing machine and by the diameter of the quilted roll of fabric layers that is located in the throat of the sewing machine. The length of the throat of the sewing machine is equal to the distance from the back of the throat of the machine to the sewing needle. If a sewing machine has a throat size of 18 inches and the take up rail and idler rail diameters are the typical 1.5 inches, then the maximum size pattern that could be quilted would be 16.5 inches assuming the needle could sew right to the edge of the rail. Once the available area of quilt has been sewn, the sewn area of fabric is rolled onto the take up rail. Depending on the thickness of batting and the length of the quilt, the roll of quilted fabric can be as large as 6 inches or even larger. So, as the user finishes the quilt and there is approximately a six inch diameter roll of fabric passing through the machine, the effective quiltable area has become only 12 inches. This must be accounted for as a user plans their quilt from the beginning, so that they do not plan to use 14 inch patterns, which are feasible at the beginning of the quilt, but impossible at the end of the quilt when the maximum size pattern is 12 inches.
The present invention is intended to remedy this problem. With the use of a stationary idler rail and a take up rail that moves longitudinally, i.e. forward and back, as the sewing machine approaches the take up rail at the needle side or back side of the throat of the machine, the user will have the same available quilting area throughout the quilt regardless of the size of the roll of fabric passing through the throat of the machine. Having the take up rail move in relationship to the idler rail gives the user the ability to quilt the maximum area that the throat of the sewing machine will allow from the beginning of the quilt to the end of the quilt. Thus, with the same 18 inch throat sewing machine, the present invention gives the user the ability to sew 16.5 inch patterns all the way through the quilt rather than being limited to 12 inches when the finished roll of quilted material is six inches. With the present invention, the user can quilt the same size patterns with an 18 inch throat machine that would have previously required a 22.5 inch throat sewing machine.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a take-up rail assembly which will increase the usable throat length of a sewing machine, and in particular a quilting machine.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a take-up rail assembly which will increase the usable throat length of a sewing machine and continue to provide increased throat length as sewed fabric, e.g., quilted material, is rolled onto the take-up rail and the diameter of the roll of sewed fabric increases.